Are You Torn?

     Suffering happens to everyone.  Alright, discussion's over and we can all go home!  Yes, true.  Suffering happens to everyone, but the question is how do we all deal with it?  Torn by Jud Wilhite was written to address this question and provide a God-centered way to address it.  Written from the perspective of a theological narrator whose discourse is supplemented with examples of people who have experienced suffering and how they've coped with it, all this is done ultimately to come to the conclusion that we don't know why suffering happens to each individual but we do know that God will always use it ultimately to His glory.
     Wilhite does a great job of tying Biblical perspective to current setting.  Stories of suffering straight out of the Bible provide an application to life, and alongside them Wilhite adds references to pop culture events (YouTube, Death Cab for Cutie, and Hopkins's The Edge for example).  What I have an issue with is the fact that this book ends too neatly.  For all the practicality that Wilhite provides for how to deal with suffering, it would seem that he glosses over or makes it seem too simple.  For example, in his final pre-conclusion chapter, "Learning to Forgive," a much more powerful thing to analyze would have been what happens when the one suffering is upset with God and how to "forgive" when he or she feels that they have been abandoned by the Creator.  He starts to leave the door cracked for issues like this but sadly it would seem that a lot of the messy issues he sidesteps.
     Overall, Torn is a well-written book full of practical advice for the Christian who is in pain and suffering.  For the issues that I have, I still enjoyed this book and would recommend it for anyone who would like a book to broaden their view on issues of the Christian walk.

I received my copy of this book free though Multnomah's Blogging for Books program.  I was not obligated to write a favorable review; the opinions are my own.

Why We Should All Be "Second"

Revelations 12:11 states that, “They overcame by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.”  I Am Second: Real Stories Changing Lives is definitely a book about and for overcoming all obstacles and experience the life-transforming power of the Almighty and His Son, Jesus Christ.  This book is a collection of stories of notable people from different walks of life and how their lives were changed by an encounter with Jesus.  These stories are real, gripping, true-life narratives of how different famous people overcame various problems to the glory of God. 

These stories are powerful yet polished.  Sometimes, I felt they were a little too polished and perfectly presented.  While I did enjoy reading them, it feels like there is a lot of production that went into writing them to the point that some of the power of these personal stories can be missed.  Most of the stories, I was able to find a video counterpart on the I Am Second website, and these stories reflect the same production that the videos received.  Overall, the book was alright.  I teach high school English and have recommended this book to a couple of my students.

I received my copy of this book for free through the publisher, Thomas Nelson, in return for writing a review over it and its contents.  I was not required to give a favorable; the opinions stated are my own.

You Have a Unique Soulprint

You are a unique creation of God with the purpose of serving Him in the unique way that only you can.  This one sentence sums up the entire book Soulprint, the newest book from Mark Batterson.  Doing what he does best, Batterson takes familiar portions of the Bible and gives them a fresh spin.  Using five different aspects of the life of King David, Batterson shows the reader how through the high and low points he or she can live and fulfill his or her unique life calling; in short, how they can fully assume the identity of their soul print.

Soulprint feels very similar to his earlier book In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day.  Where Soulprint falls short for me is that while In a Pit was the kind of book to pump you up and get you motivated to do some outrageous things for God, Soulprint felt too much like a self-help book for me.  Based on what I had read earlier from Batterson, I did not enjoy this book as much as I could have.  A reader who comes into this book with a similar mindset will have a very difficult time getting into this book much like I did.  The reader who will get the most out of this book is the one who is working on trying to find his or her identity; the young Christian who is trying to grow in the faith.

I received my copy of this book free from the publisher, Multnomah Waterbrook Press, through their Blogging for Books program for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I was not required to issue a positive review.

"A Year With Jesus"

     To the reader of the Bible, upon reading the New Testament it can seem perplexing why there are four books back-to-back (the Gospels) that all tell the same story.  Different stories are repeated with only slight variation in quotation and it can all seem like just a story.  This is where A Year With Jesus can be useful as much more than a simple yearly devotional guide.  R.P. Nettelhorst takes the reader through a one-year journey that takes excerpts from both the words of Jesus and stories about Jesus from the Bible, and then turns them into a relational expository lesson that makes the teachings of Jesus easily accessible to any reader.  But more than this, Nettelhorst through the pages of this devotional introduces the reader to The One who desires relationship with all who read His words.


     At times deceivingly simplistic and at other times intimate, A Year With Jesus is an engaging read.  Once you get into the habit of reading the daily entries, readers will be challenged to actually want to stop reading this book as each day furthers a "conversation" of insights of the most important Teacher of all time, Jesus.  I recommend this book to anyone looking for a one-year study guide that will challenge them to grow, no matter what their station in life.




I received my copy of this book free from the publisher, Thomas Nelson, through their BookSneeze program for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I was not required to issue a positive review.

Join Michael Leehan in "The Ascent from Darkness"

     Ascent from Darkness is a powerful personal narrative about the spiritual battle between good and evil. Michael Leehan's personal testimony is gripping, and thought-provoking. It simultaneously draws the reader in while causing them to take stock of his or her own personal Walk. Leehan begins Ascent from Darkness sharing a snapshot from his early adulthood. From there the book does not relent as we follow him on the course of his path from initially deciding to turn his life over to the work of Satan, to a life plagued by demon influence, and finally at the end of his rope realizing that the only path to freedom comes through Jesus Christ.

This is by far one of the most powerful books I have read lately. From the moment I picked up the book until the moment I was done reading the book, I could not put it down. Leehan comes across as an honest, sincere human who has gone through a life transformation. At times conversational and other times matter-of-factual, but much of the time unsettling with how honest he is, Leehan does not hold back as he shares the struggles of his life. Anyone picking up this book will find quickly that Leehan's life is one genuinely Redeemed story worth reading.

I received my copy of this book free from the publisher, Thomas Nelson, through their BookSneeze program for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this review are my own,and I was not required to issue a positive review.

Why God Won't Go Away by Alister McGrath

            To begin with, Why God Won’t Go Away is not a book determined to engage with you and convince you that God is real.  This book is not meant to persuade you to find some sort of “religion.”  While McGrath is a noted theologian of our day, this book has one purpose only, which is to engage what has come to be known as the “new atheism” by contributing the rebuttal to the discourse of authors such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris.  McGrath presents the positions of these three men and then counters them by showing the inherent flaws of their position.  Throughout the book, McGrath goes a step further by explaining where they go wrong and then he offers a protheological view that counters yet seems fully rationale.  In the end we see that GOD does not go away because GOD is constant; the views of those who do not believe in GOD are not.

            This book is a little different compared to what I usually read so I didn’t quite know what to expect in reading it.  The book engaged me in how I’ve come to the conclusions that I have in regards to faith and the evidence needed to have it.  I felt this book was even-handed, well-researched, and that the evidence was presented in a way that rebutted the “new atheism” without stepping into the realm of triviality and name calling.  I enjoyed Why God Won't Go Away and would recommend it to and would recommend it to anyone who wants to broaden their knowledge on the conversation between atheists and theists.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Understanding In A Car Crash.

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, you saw yesterday (7/11) that I uploaded a photo of Sarah's Saturn dashboard with both airbags having been set off and in the process of deflating; the caption read: "To the driver of the red Pontiac: thank you for screwing up our evening."  Yesterday seems like such a whirlwind and I wonder if it really happened, but then I look at the bruise and swollen mark on my leg and realize that it did.  As even mere hours pass since it happened, I keep wondering whether the details are getting clearer or clearer as I saw them.

As the car crossed our lane of traffic and we were preparing to collide, I remember just sitting there watching it all unfold from the passenger seat.  There's a scene in the beginning of the movie Garden State where Zach Braff is having a dream where he is in a plane that is going down and as everyone is screaming and in a panic, he is sitting in his seat disaffected, calm, and stoic.  It kind of felt like that for me.  There was no jerk reaction, no heavy breathing, nothing.  When we hit, the only thing going on in my head as there was the squealing of tires, crunch of vehicle bodies, and the deployment of airbags was: "Wow.  The sound is deafeningly quiet now."  My ears were ringing and everything was muffled for a moment.  I remember Sarah asking me if I was okay and my only response as I went through the motor checklist of my limbs and body my only response was: "I don't know."

The emergency vehicles begin to arrive and it quickly becomes a scene from a cheesy B-film (including the helpful man with the ZZ Top beard in the pickup truck who witnessed it all happen).  I then received an epiphany to a question I had wondered my entire life: I wonder what people think about as they are standing at the scene of a car wreck witnessing the emergency response crews working.  The answer is: not much of anything.

Here's to hoping the rest of the summer gets better.